musing about work

[the_siobhan]

Today I am sans pants or purpose.

Believe it or not I actually feel guilty about it. What is wrong with me?

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Yesterday I had somebody completely Lose Her Shit with me on the phone. Actually I had a whole series of Shit Losing go on. This has been a week for screamers. I assure you; this is a huge improvement over all the cryers I was getting last week. The sick and the poor make me hide in the bathroom and weep like a baby at my assimilation by the dark side. Give me the death threats any day, they are much easier to deal with.

It is the first time anybody has demanded to complain to my manager. Which might sound like a threat, but it's totally not, all our calls are taped. She was just mad because she couldn't force the universe (ie me) to admit that she didn't have to pay her bill through sheer force of personality alone.

The thing is, I actually bend over backwards to help people who are genuinely going through financial hardships. I've talked to lots of people who need more time or whatever and I do my level best to sort something out with them. But if somebody's just going to phone me up and yell at me and call me names in response to every suggestion I make? I am sweet, polite and just bustin' all over with customer service friendliness as I send their rude ass to a collection agency.

I did get an adrenalin rush from the whole thing though, which I thought was really interesting. I wasn't upset about it at all, but I still got the automatic monkey-brain endocrine response from being yelled at. Is that just my childhood memories making me triggery, or does everybody get that?

Comments

[panic-girl.livejournal.com]

I always got the rush too, when customers yelled at me. Maybe because my parents never did yell at me, I was so unaccustomed to it, and my "fight" response flared up, big time.

[the_axel]

Stoppit with the guilt. You totally deserve a day without work or purpose. Fire up GTA III or something & kill things.

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I think that's a normal response. I certainly used to get that.
I think the yelling triggers a fight/flight response.

[the-fury.livejournal.com]

Absolutely.

It generally doesn't bother me, but it makes me get a lot more aggressive. I was about a millisecond away from reaching down the phone line, grabbing him by the throat, and telling to him fuck my hat.

[lilactime.livejournal.com]

Yes. This is why I got out of working with people. They make me jumpy and sweaty and need to smoke.

Once at Sutherland-Chan I had a guy threaten to come and kill me because I wouldn't go pull his wife off the massage table to come to the phone. Then for some reason he threatened to call the cops on me. He hung up on me once I pointed out that the cops would surely be interested to know that he had uttered a death threat because I wouldn't go retrieve his wife.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

A story from before I started working there is that somebody once actually showed up at the office to seek out one of the staff. Of course she notified security and he ended up leaving in a police car.

And since all the calls are taped, they had proof that he had threatened her with assault.

[ravensee.livejournal.com]

I wasn't upset about it at all, but I still got the automatic monkey-brain endocrine response from being yelled at. Is that just my childhood memories making me triggery, or does everybody get that?

You're not the only one.

DON'T FEEL GUILTY FOR REST, you deserve rest.

[grimjim.livejournal.com]

I'd say an endocrine response is instinctive. If someone is being belligerent and aggressive, then they're signalling violence. From my take on evolutionary behavior, it would be adaptive to ramp up one's physical response to indicate the capability to withstand attack and/or signal violent capability and/or rev up the cardio for a sprint away in kind to deter escalation to physical violence. Brace for impact. Fight, flight, or bluff. We've had practically zero time on the evolutionary scale to adapt to the context where we aren't within a stone's throw or few of the person yelling at us.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

That strikes me as entirely plausable.

Mostly I found it really interesting that there was such a big disconnect between brain/emotions and physiological response.

[grimjim.livejournal.com]

From what I've read, our higher cognition appears to be based in our prefrontal cortex. "Gut reaction" involves the limbic system, which is a more fundamental brain structure. Our rationality is more of an overlay.

[(Anonymous)]

Dunno about everybody, but I definitely had the same reaction when I worked in a call centre and got people screaming at me. Most of the time I could talk them down, but one guy Lost His Shit so thoroughly that he almost had me in tears. Like you, I did everything I could to help the people who were polite and cooperative. People who treated me like shit got the bare minimum.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

That was me.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons it doesn't upset me is that I know that ultimately, no matter what they say, I have a bigger hammer than they do.

Bullies don't impress me at the best of times. On the other side of a phone? Pfft

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

I used to get exasperated more than anything else. I was also amazed that people actually thought that giving me attitude was going to get them anywhere. Then there were the people that just would NOT shut up and the ones who thought that we could control the polices and activities of Revenue Canada, Canada Post and life and the universe and everything.

The one guy that lost his shit on me sounded like he was really out of control, which kinda freaked me out. The kicker was that it wasn't even our fault that we didn't have his correct data. His HR dept hadn't sent it over.

Do you guys have to use MAGIC - Make A Great Impression on the Customer? All our calls were monitored and evaluated as to how MAGIC-al we were.

God, I hated that place.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Ha! No MAGIC thank God.

[billyname99.livejournal.com]

I know your pain. I'm a Collector. I collect on Student loans.

I have had 3 people yell at me this week for having the nerve to call them and ask them to actually pay back their loans.

My solution for a screamer is simple. I calmly and politely explain to them that they really do need to pay their bill, I offer them forebearances, deferrals and easy payment options.

If they keep screaming, I (again) calmly inform them that I am going to terminate the call and hang up.

I do this for several reasons:

1. I get bouses for the amount of account I keep from going into default. (default is bad!) Time wasted arguing with an idiot costs me money.

2. I am not paid to put up with abuse. I don't care how much the wages and bonuses are, there's just not enough money to make it worthwhile.

3. I really don't give a damn if they do go into default.

If they don't want to accept the help I am offering, there is nothing I can do.

I will just move on to the next call, knowing that the deadbeat is going to be REALLY pissed when his Tax Refund disappears.

My $0.02

Billy.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Our bonuses aren't calculated dirctly from the numbers, but it does have an influence. (It's just one of the factors that is used to determine performance measures, and that does lead into bonus.)

The managers here also make very clear that we don't have to take abuse from a customer. I work with people who will hang up if the client swears, even if it's not directly at them.

I haven't yet actually hung up on a customer, although I've threatened to a couple of times. Usually because the conversation is just going in circles.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

yep, i get that. i get it even now, when customer service isn't actually my job at all. my boss gets it so bad that i have repeatedly seen him hang up on people before he totally flips out and breaks stuff.

[oakmossone.livejournal.com]

Hey Siobhan,

All I gotta say is this . . .

Mercury Freaking Retrograde as of Tuesday night.

However I must say that for someone to lose their shit on you at all is brave . . . even over the phone!

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Totally not just you! My niece lost her shit on the phone to me yesterday, and wow did I lose it back in return. Monkey brain short circuit.